Kenneth Grahame Biography and List of Works

English bank official, writer, author of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS (1908), which established Grahame's international reputation as a writer of children's books and has deeply influenced fantasy literature. The central characters in the story are the shy little Mole, clever Ratty, Badger, and crazy Toad, who experience adventures in the English countryside. The animals converse and behave like humans, but each creature has its typical animal habits, and some of the animals are eaten for breakfast by Mole, Rat, or Badger. Grahame has also published essays, stories and collections of sketches.

"Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wild World," said the Rat. "And that's something that doesn't matter, either to you or me. I've never been there, and I'm never going, nor you either, if you've got any sense at all..."
(from The Wind in the Willows)

Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh as the son of a lawyer from an old Scottish family. Due to the alcoholism of his father, elderly relatives brought up Grahame. In the early years he lived with his family in the Western highlands. When his mother died of scarlet fever, the children were sent to live with their maternal grandmother in the village of Cookham Dene, the chief setting of The Wind in the Willows. Grahame was educated at St. Edward's School, Oxford, and in 1879 he entered the Bank Of England.

While pursuing his career at the bank, Grahame began composing light non-fiction pieces as a pastime He contributed articles to such journals as the St. James Gazette, W.E. Henley's National Observer and The Yellow Book. Grahame's stories about a group of orphaned children were published in PAGAN PAPERS (1893). In 1895 appeared THE GOLDEN AGE, a collection of sketches from his published works. It was followed by DREAM DAYS in 1898, which included Grahame's most famous short story, 'The Reluctant Dragon'. All the Dragon wants is to be left alone, but the villagers want it dead. Thanks to a wise child, the Dragon manages to trick the Establishment and keep its life.

"As a rule, indeed, grown-up people are fairly correct on matters of fact; it is in the higher gift of imagination that they are so sadly to seek."
(from The Golden Age, 1985)

Grahame was appointed as the secretary at the Bank and in 1899 he married Elspeth Thomson, whose snobbish attitudes Grahame did not share. Living in a disastrous marriage, Grahame wrote parts of The Wind in the Willows originally in letter form to his young son Alistair. The book appeared in 1908 and reflected the author's unhappiness in the real world. The main tale tells how Toad's obsession with motorcars leads him into imprisonment, from which he escapes into the Wild Woods and with the help of his companions regains Toad Hall from Untermenschen stoats.

After the publication of the book, Grahame retired from his work because of health reasons or under pressure from his employees. He spent the rest of his life with his wife in idleness. Alistair committed suicide while an undergraduate at Oxford: he was killed by a train. Grahame stopped writing after WW I. He died in Pangbourne, Berkshire, on July 6, 1932. William Horwood's sequel The Willows in the Winter (1993) received mixed reviews, although he managed to reproduce Grahame's phraseology and rhythms rather well. The second sequel, Toad Triumphant, appeared in 1996. The trilogy was finished with The Willows and Beyond (1998). Horwood has also written the internationally acclaimed Duncton trilogies.

For further reading: Keneth Grahame by Patrick R. Chalmers (1933); First Whisper of 'The Wind in the Willows' by Elspeth Grahame (1944); Kenneth Grahame 1859-1932 by Peter Green (1959); Kenneth Grahame by Eleanor Graham (1963); The Wind in the Willows: A Fragmented Arcadia by Peter Hunt (1994); Kenneth Grahame: An Innocent in the Wild Wood by Allison Prince (1994)

PAGAN PAPERS, (1893)